Bailboad-chaih



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

I. IV. VETMORIJy OF ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA.

RAILROAD-CHAIR.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 28,321, dated May 15, 1860.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, I. W. IVETMORE, of Erie, in the county of Erie and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Railroad-Chair, called the longitudinal subwedge chair and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The nature of my invention is as follows: In the ordinary rail roads, the wheel depresses the back edge of the tie and throws up the forward edge. This rocks the tie in its bed and the chair on the tie and operates as a lever power to raise the end of the for ward rail above the back rail in the joint. I remedy this evil by bending the upper surface of the base of the chair forward and back so that the ends of the rails will rest on only about four inches of the center of the chair. The pressure of the load on a rail will then be so nearly over the center of the tie as to prevent the rocking and consequent unevenness of the joint and the chair will still be large enough to be prevented from sinking into the tie.

Another principle in my invention is as follows: There is a lack of adjustability in most of the chairs and splices in use. Some forms have wedges on the outsides of the joints. The outward strain on the jams is very severe and the jaw on the opposite side can not fit close to the edge of the web without preventing the chair from being tightened on that side after it has worn loose. M. Fishers patent of 1858 secures adjustability by nuts and screws. The general objection to this form is the number of parts in the splice and that the nut will work loose or if tightened up, it will work back to its original position. Wooden adjustable splices become loose in dry weather. I propose to secure a more efficient adjustability in the chair. My patented band chair and T jaw chairs of 1859, are adjustable. My present design is to secure adjustability in a little simpler and cheaper form by using a longitudinal wedge under the rails between the chair and web; t-he jaws and base of the chair being one piece.

Another defect in most of the chairs in use is, that, the webs of the rails being somewhat irregular and uneven, the jaws are made farther apart than the width of most of the webs so as to take in the widest andv roughest of them. The objections to having the bend or knuckle of the jaw so far from the surface of pressure on the web, are, first, because the jaw may catch on the thin edge of the web and break it; second, the lever power to break the jaw at the knuckle increases with the distance of the knuckle from the surface of pressure. To remedy these evils, I pair off by the same operation by which the spike notches are cut, the edges of the webs so that the ends of the rails may all be of a uniform width and the chairs may be made of a given width to fit them exactly.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

C and D are ends of rails at the joint. Their edges are pared oif about i of an inch on each side as far from each end as the length of the lip This notch u u, is twice the length of the web covered by the lip because, 1n removing rails for repairing, &c., the lips of the chair must slip entirely onto the end of one rail. The objects of u u are, iirst, to lessen the distance of the surface of pressure in the jaw x from. the bevel or knuckle z, so as to diminish the lever power to break it at a; second, to throw the strain on to the thicker part of the nib, and, third, to correct the irregularities in width, of the webs so that they will exactly lit a chain of fixed width and prevent lateral irregularities in the meeting and working of the ends of rails. The webs of these ends may be only notched for spike in the usual form and not pared off, as in A, B.

E is a. wrought iron chain. The jaws are bent on a wedge shaped former so that they will admit a thin wedge G, under the rails. The opposite side is like the side represented except both spikes are like g. The knuckles .a of the jaws are thickened in the process of manufacturing.

w o, w e, are the bevel of the ends of the chairs. The wedge will not touch the chairs for the distances from fw to lvwabout l of the length of the chair from each end. The object of the bevel is two fold, first, to lessen the friction on the wedge when driven up and on the rails when they expand and contract by heat and cold, second, to prevent the rocking of the tie and chain as already described.

The chain may be of the form F. F', is 4 to 8 inches long and g of an inch thick. The jaw is as long as the chair and may be thickened as in the other forni. 0, 7o, is the bevel on one end, that on the other being about the saine; 7s, Z, m, n, a longitudinal vertical section of the base of the chairs. The friction and supporting surface is from Z to m. .F is the insideofthe chain. The outside may be spiked by one spike at the middle of .e or at k and n neXt to the rail.

Theimprovenients can be easily applied to the chair of the Phoenix Iron Company of Philadelphia Pa. o-r other forms of Wrought or cast iron chairs. Y

Gr is a Wrought iron Wedge about 9 inches long, V2; of an inch thick atV` one end and at the other. Itis driven between the web and the base of the chair. The straight edge of the Wedge passes inside of the spike on the opposite side of chair E. The teeth of the notches L, protrude into the spike hole of spike R, so that the angle of this pentagonal spike will catch them and prevent they Wedge from beingvvorked back; z', i, notches by Which the Wedge is drawn out; j, notch to allow the Wedge to pass spike g. The Wedge What I claiin as iny invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent isl. The lip chair E Jformed for a longitudinal Wedge under the rails and fitting them/exactly because' of the trimming of the Web u u, the upper surface of the base of the chair being beveled at each end fw v, w o.

2. The Wedge G, passing between all the spikes except one and held in place under the joint by notches /Ly catching the spike R. A Y I. W. VVETMORE.

Witnesses:

J. L. STEWART, ALLEN A. CRAIG. 

